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Photo Alchemy and mixed media

Photography blended with paint, wax, transfers, collage and gold leaf, until the photograph becomes an object. Mixed media is the same workbench under another name.

Threads of Alchemy

Photo Alchemy is Martin's own name for blending photography with traditional and unconventional art materials. A photograph is printed and then worked by hand: hand colouring, encaustic wax, image transfer, gold leaf, burning, chemistry and whatever else the piece asks for.

The point is not the technique. It is that the camera stops being the last step. It can enter the process at the beginning, in the middle, or right at the end, and the finished work is an object rather than a print.

The camera is just one of the tools on the workbench.Martin Osner

Mixed media is the same workbench under another name. Collage, transfer, texture and paint are built up in layers until the surface carries as much meaning as the image does. Some pieces begin as a photograph, some begin as a torn piece of paper on the studio floor, and most are one of a kind.

What goes on the workbench

Hand colouring

Oil and pigment worked into the print

Encaustic wax

Warm wax layered over the surface

Transfers

The image lifted onto another surface

Gold leaf

Applied by hand, sealed by hand

Burning and chemistry

Controlled damage, on purpose

Found materials